


Outbound

by josephina_x



Series: Dimension 46’\-A [23]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: (admittedly should probably be rated R for language instead of PG-13), (due to a decent amount of scattershot straight-up curse words in here), (well -A Bill being -A Bill while operating inside the agreement that is), A Better World (Gravity Falls), Alien Culture, Alien Planet, Alien Technology, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Bill Cipher Being Bill Cipher, Bill Cipher is a Jerk, Brothers, Demon Bill Cipher, Demons, Demons Are Assholes, Dimension Travel, Flatland References, Gen, Human"-ish" Bill Cipher, One Year Later, Post-Weirdmageddon, Shopping, The Nightmare Realm (Gravity Falls), Twins
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-15 03:33:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20859548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/josephina_x/pseuds/josephina_x
Summary: Stan and Bill, outward-bound and all-around. Goin' on anadventure.Was this a bad idea?





	1. Prompt #1: Fear. “It will be fun, trust me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Yay for [Noia prompts?](https://fordanoia.tumblr.com/post/188056376953/fictoberwritetober-2019-idea-i-couldnt-decide) :) They probably mostly won't be/follow the dual-prompt, tho.
> 
> Not entirely sure if this is gonna be canon or not, mostly writing this just for fun. <strike>Knowing me, it'll probably end up totally canon, ha.</strike>
> 
> ...In case you've been wondering where the heck I've been, and what's been going on with -A Bill in the meantime? I've been crossover-ing with Miz over at her fic, starting [right here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13291395/chapters/41637026)! (When the massive crossover is over, I'll repost all the crossover-chappys here as well, don't worry!)

\---

"It will be fun, trust me."

Stan (no, he wasn't going by Lee anymore, no matter how often the devil-demon repeated it!) looked down at Bill Cipher's outstretched hand for a long moment, then looked back up at him again.

"...Seriously?" he said somewhat skeptically, in mostly-even tones.

Bill nodded at him. Stan let out a huff of breath.

"I'm eighteen, not _stupid_\--" Stan began.

"--_I_ don't think you're stupid," the devil-demon said a little too easily. A little too knowingly. Stan looked away and grimaced.

"I don't…" Stan stopped, trailed off. Because, yeah, he knew full well what the demon thought of him. It didn't need no repeating or nothing, that he knew the demon didn't think of him that way. He looked down at Bill's hand again.

"...This seems like a _really_ bad idea," Stan put out there, because it probably was. And he _was_ trying to stay away from those lately. Mostly. Because...

Well, he didn't have anybody having his back anymore, did he? <strike>Because Sixer was--</strike>

"It'll be just _one_ quick little run," Bill said next, eyes gleaming. "There and back again, in almost a flash! Practically won't even KNOW you were gone!" the demon told him with the start of a grin.

...Really, _really_ bad idea. (Except…)

"It's not like it's really anything _new_ for _you_," the demon said knowingly, and Stan grimaced again, because he'd _really_ felt the hook there _that_ time.

"...Just _one_ little errand," Stan said slowly, repeating the demon's earlier ask. "One quick little errand to a marketplace in another dimension, to get somethin' for ya, and then right back here again. That's it."

"That's it!" the devil-demon said enthusiastically, looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as anything.

Stan tried not to bite at his lip, as he stared down at Bill's hand, still there. Still outstretched. Waiting.

"Don't you want to see what's out there?" the devil-demon asked him next. "See what you've missed? Seen what you've _been_ missing. _What_ all you're missing?" And oh, it was tempting. <strike>Especially since--</strike>

"...Yeah, okay," Stan said finally, reaching out and taking Bill's hand. "Sure. Why not." Because why not. _Why not_ just--

"_That's_ the spirit!" the demon told him with a grin, brightening up like nothing-going, and...

...Older-Sixer was gonna yell at him _so much_ for this, wasn't he.

<strike>Yeah, well. Served him right, anyway. So there. He could take care of himself just fine, y'know. And Sixer could just go off trying to take care of his own self without him, too. This was fine. This was _great_. This was just great.</strike>

Stan pulled in a breath as the demon hummed out a little, happily, as he took a step forward, turned, and… came up right next to his side, to stand right there. Standing right there, holding hands with him.

And yeah, Stan wasn't stupid. He was already starting to get a little bit of a sinking feeling there, as he realized what was already gonna be different about _last time_ and _this_. But--

The demon grinned at him winningly though, which maybe _almost_ made things a little better, and then the devil-demon made a gesture with his free hand almost casually.

The demon started to laugh, as Stan felt his footing falter and he couldn't regain it -- like somebody'd just yanked a rug out from under him at the top of a staircase, and--

He twisted his head downwards as he fell and went dead pale almost immediately.

Because a _tear in the world_ had been sliced open beneath their feet. The demon had just-- This was _not_ a portal. This was **nothing** like blue, it was a _dark tear_ in the-- his legs were already half into-it-- _**SHIT!!!**_

And as they fell down together into chaos and hell, the devil-demon kept on cackling at his side all the way.

\---


	2. Prompt #2: Nightmare. "Just follow me, I know the area.”

\---

"_THE HELL YOU CRAZY DEMON?!?!_" Lee yelled out at him, sounding panicked as anything as he craned his head around, frantically taking in the scene. "_What the **hell is this?!?**_" and Bill was starting to think that _maybe_ he _shouldn't_ have decided to show off by taking--

"The scenic route," Bill said simply, and Lee twisted his head back around to stare at him. Bill (ever the performer -slash- show-off) gestured (as) grandly (as he could with his free hand, given Lee's current death-grip on his other hand right now, the baby!) at their surroundings, and said: "Welcome to the Nightmare Realm!"

But at this pronouncement, for some reason Lee seemed to feel the need to stare at him flatly. Then look around at everything again (with significantly less panic than before). Then turn back towards him and glower at him, next. Then say, "You said this would be _quick_."

“It is!” Bill enthused out, grinning, as they floated together, hands-held, in space. “--It _will_ be,” he added, after a moment.

To this, Lee gave him another few seconds of staring, then shoved his free hand into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

“Program,” Lee said to it, as the human-ish looking-like-him non-AI program that Bill had coded up for him appeared on the smartphone screen, “Repeat what Bill said to me about this trip a little while ago. Start from… around when he brought up an ‘errand’.”

And the program-sprite repeated dutifully back to him: “I just want to go on one quick little errand to a marketplace in another dimension, to get something, and then we’ll come right back here again. … There and back again, in almost a flash! Practically won't even KNOW you were gone! … It's not like it's really anything _new_\--”

"--That’s enough," Lee said, before looking up from his phone at Bill again, as he shoved it back into his pocket. “I don’t see any marketplaces around here.”

”We’re going there next; this is a shortcut!” Bill told him.

Lee glowered at him even more, and pulled out his phone again, to hold it up in front of them. “Program,” he said, while not looking away from Bill, “Repeat that part about the ‘there and back’ bit? What did Bill say, again?”

“He said, ‘There and back again, in almost a flash!’” the program dutifully repeated brightly.

“Uh huh,” Lee said, lowering the phone. “Right.” Lee was starting to glower-frown at him again. “You said ‘a flash’.”

“Yes,” Bill said, floating around to drift more in front of Lee than at his side. “The reopening of the not-a-portal included an almost-flash! Of light! At first. That we were in,” before getting there, because the Nightmare Realm itself wasn’t exactly known for its flashing (or pretty) lights, here.

“Not a portal,” Bill heard Lee mutter. “Right. <strike>_Great…_</strike> \--Do I even want to know what we just came through instead?” Lee asked him next. “Am I completely in one piece, here?”

Bill caught himself starting to frown at him, but forced a smile back onto his face. “Do you want to know?” he asked Lee, but Lee didn’t respond verbally, and the long look he was getting slowly had the smile leaving Bill’s face.

“...If we ain’t going to this market-thing next, right now, then I’m going back,” Lee said, looking upwards as if he was trying to refind the location of the mini-tear Bill had reopened (briefly) and pulled them through. “Where’s the exit.”

“--We’re going, we’re going!” Bill said in a hurry, pushing himself through his surroundings with a mental push of will, while holding onto Lee’s hand and dragging him along after him.

“This isn’t the way we came in,” Lee complained, attempting to tug his way in the opposite direction Bill was pulling him in (largely unsuccessfully, not knowing what he was doing or needed to do to move around in here), and Bill rolled his eyes at him as he slowed down a bit.

“No,” said Bill, as he looked over his shoulder at Lee. “This is a _shortcut_. We just need to go over--”

“We’re going to the market right now,” Lee said.

“Yes.”

“And we’re getting this thing you want quickly and going straight back,” Lee said next.

“...Maaaaayb-- _Yes!_ Fine. --_Fine!_ Yes,” Bill said next at the look Lee was giving him, starting to feeling a little annoyed now.

“Good,” Lee said, before following it up with, “No more shortcuts.”

"_You're_ no fun," Bill huffed out in annoyance, as he started moving them forward again. _Clearly_, he was wasting his efforts on him, if _this_ was the kind of reception that he was going to get from him doing anything _remotely_ fun, moving forward. "Oh, _boo hoo_, I can’t even take a little--"

"--Let's just get your stuff, and get back already," Lee said, interrupting him, as Bill started to slow down as they approached the nearest ‘bubble’ (read: reasonably-stabilized bubble-portal).

Bill couldn't believe his stupid humanish ears. "What. Are you serious?"

Because that was it? _That_ was it? That was alllllll that Lee wanted to do? He couldn't entice Lee to do anything better? He wasn't even going to look maybe-interested in why the bubble-portal looked like a bubble instead of a blue portal, or anything about where they were going, or--?!

“Yes,” Lee said, giving him another long look.

...he wasn't going to be able to entice him into anything better, was he.

"Yeesh," Bill said, feeling a bit down at being shot-down before he’d even begun to really _show off_, as it were. "_Fine_," Bill said next. Because wasn't as if he didn't really have an errand that he wanted to run -- he did.

“There and back again,” Lee repeated. “Quick and easy. Okay?” Lee said. “I didn’t sign up for anything else.”

"Alright then, _fine_,“ Bill not quite snapped out at him. ”--You want quick and easy? I can _DO_ quick and easy," Bill told him, as he floated sideways and pulled Lee through the nearest bubble. (Which was, incidentally, where Bill had been planning on going all along.)

Bill didn’t want for the peanut gallery to say anything, though, or otherwise be impressed with his good work -- Bill had _very_ low expectations, now.

So Bill just dragged them both through and across the bubble-portal’s boundary-and-horizon line, and...

Bill waited the mere seconds it took for Lee to get his feet steadily under him again, in the alleyway in which they’d both come out into, then said, "Just follow me, I know the area.”

And Bill took off at a fast walk, practically pulling Lee along behind him, never having let go of his hand.

\---


	3. Prompt #3: Loss. “Now? Now you listen to me?”

\---

“Now?” Ford said almost incredulously, as Stan stepped out of the elevator with him, into the basement. “_Now_ you listen to me?”

“I listen,” Stan said, as they both made their way further into the old portal control room.

“Stan--”

“Just check the damn computer-tracker-thing already,” Stan told him grumpily, jabbing a finger at the panel of computing equipment in front of them, and Ford let out a huff and moved forward to do just that.

“...Bill Cipher is no longer in this dimension,” Ford reported after a few moments of checking for the dream demon’s rather _distinct_ ‘weirdness’ signal, one which he would otherwise be classified as the downright _distortion_ of reality that usually surrounded Bill’s being, if one did not know _how_ to describe it any better. “And the amount of weirdness in Gravity Falls and the surrounding area has now dropped back down to _pre_-Weirdmageddon levels,” Ford reported next -- something which he’d been tracking over the course of this morning. “I _knew_ he was acting strangely this morning,“ Ford muttered, straightening in place. He looked up and over at Stan. “I _told_ you he was up to something--” ...except Stan _wasn’t even listening to him now_, was he, he was just _messing around_ with--

“Hey,” Stan said, as the display popped up with an image of-- “Looks like the demon-kid’s flown the coop. You wanna give us a hand?”

The image of Ford’s twin on the screen went from almost-pleasantly surprised (likely thinking Ford had called him) to frowning (recognizing Stan instead) to downright glowering at the two of them.

“_You’re_ the one who thinks you can keep him under control,” Ford’s twin said with a biting sarcasm, as he reached for what was presumably the ‘off’ switch for the screen. “Deal with it yours--”

“--_You’re_ the one who wants the kid quarantined _here_,” Stan shot back calmly next, “_I’d_ be just as happy to let the kid go off running around out there sometimes, _blowing off steam--_”

Ford cut in before the two of them got into any more of a glaring contest. “The _problem_ is that Bill isn’t back yet,” Ford told his twin, as both of them glanced over at him. “It’s been more than five minutes.” He double-checked his passive tracking system just to be certain, and nearly did a double-take. “It’s been three hours,” he said next, as he felt a chill go down his spine.

“So?” his twin asked him from the screen, to which Ford’s brother replied, standing next to him, “Kid goes for five minute, ten minute, or thirty-minute offsets when he’s jumping over and back places, if he’s trying to backtrack and really that worried about the timing. He’s better at time-travel than that,” Stan noted though, rightly enough. “Bein’ an hour off’s like sayin’ he damn near got himself _killed_ bleedin’ out someplace, not bein’ able to do any better,” Stan noted, crossing his arms and going not-quite expressionless, and Ford _almost_ noted aloud that there _could_ potentially be other factors ‘preventing’ or otherwise complicating things such that Bill would not be able to do a quick time-travel back so easily, to a time just after he left (as a simple linear jump, rather than requiring a nonlinear time loop of the type that Bill so disliked having to create when necessary), except...

“_Good riddance_,” Ford’s twin said, and both Stan and Ford looked over at him coldly, but Ford’s twin grimaced and waved it off almost immediately after; he knew what the risks were if that happened again. “Fine. What do you want _me_ to do about it,” Ford’s twin said next.

“Bring us over there,” Stan said next, which left Ford blinking. “I can’t go off hauling the demon-kid back without a way to go out there to actually grab him.”

Ford’s twin let out a huff a breath that was almost a sigh, and ran a six-fingered glove across his mouth.

There were a long few tense seconds, as the two Stans exchanged near-glares at each other, and then…

“Fine,” Ford’s twin muttered out, flicking a hand across whatever console must be in front of him, and a blue portal opened up out of nowhere in the middle of the control room to their right side, just before the image of him on the display screen winked out.

“C’mon, Ford,” Stan said, already halfway to the portal. “Let’s go.”

Stan walked through it not a second later and, after a quick glance back at the now-dark communications screen, Ford hurried in after him.

\---


	4. Prompt #4: Vampire. “I know you didn’t ask for this.”

\---

To say that Ford was not in the best of moods could be considered an understatement. His twin had come to meet him and Stan at the portal within a half-minute from their arrival, waving off the usual armed guards and personnel that guarded said device, yes. But Stan was acting grumpier than usual, and _still not listening to him_, and...

Well. His own twin wasn’t exactly helping, saying things like, “You didn’t ask for this.”

Ford, walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him down the hallway, grimaced as Stan took the lead in front of them (for reasons Ford could not explain, though Stan did seem to know where he was going).

“Correct. I did not ask for this; Stan did.” Ford said with more than a little caustic bite.

At this response from him, his twin seemed to _relax_ somewhat, and when he smiled at Ford grimly, it left Ford looking away from him and trying not to either cringe or bristle at his twin’s own response to this.

“Well, I’m glad we agree on _something_,” Ford’s twin said in pointed tones, before glancing away from him to stare daggers into Stan’s back. “Your _’brother’_ here shouldn’t get to decide things for the rest of you.” Ford’s twin added with more than a little anger.

Ford blinked. The _rest_ of them? Who else, beyond he himself, did his twin think had been impacted by Stan deciding to call--

“--Oh, put a sock in it, ya wannabe ‘Sixer’,” Stan tossed over his shoulder back at him, raising a hand to waggle his fingers back and forth at him. “_Jealous_, much?” he added with an eye-roll obvious in his tone, as he dropped his hand.

Ford saw his twin bristle at his side, clenching six-fingered gloves into fists, and he suddenly realized, blinking… “To what are you both referring?”

Ford wasn’t entirely sure if they all stopped in the hallway because of what he’d said, or because Stan had finally reached the door that he’d wanted (it looked like the entrance to some sort of locker room). However, he had two sets of eyes blinking at him from two different Stans, as his twin said, “I was talking about the Zodiac.” He paused, frowning, then said, “I know you didn’t ask for _this_,” next, as he gestured abruptly at Stan with something approaching disgust.

“What did ya think we were talkin’ about,” Stan said next, frowning at him a little himself. The problem was, he was talking slightly over...

“And I _will_ find a way to unhook you from that damn demon’s Zodiac--” Ford’s twin continued on.

“--That would be _terribly_ unwise,” Ford said in horror to his twin, barely able to process the statement. Because if the circle was gone, then there would be nothing left that they could be sure of that would stop Bill completely--

“The _hell_ it is!” his twin thundered back at him. “You think I don’t see what it’s been _doing_ to you?!” And at that, Ford winced and had to look away, absently rubbing the heel of his right hand up against his chest, just at and above his heart.

“It’s currently the only potentially-viable way of stopping Bill--” Ford began doggedly.

“_Ford_,” Stan cut in, and Ford fell silent. “What did you _think_ we were talking about,” he repeated.

Ford let out a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “I thought he was talking about your having called him, instead of me doing it myself.” He dropped his hand and grimaced as he informed them, “I realized how badly I had lost the thread when--”

“--Okay, yeah,” Stan said next, as Ford’s own twin stared over at him. “Not the same thing; got it.”

Ford let out another sigh and glanced over at his twin, then nearly winced as he realized that his twin was still frowning at him after this explanation and recovery. “...Yes?” Ford asked.

“You… weren’t going to call me?” his twin said, and Ford realized that his twin was not only frowning at him, he was also looking a little shocked. “I… I mean…” His twin shook his head slightly, then drew himself up and gritted out, “_How_, precisely, were you planning on going after Bill _without_\--”

“--_Hey_,” Stan cut in, looking a little like he was about to get punchy. “Maybe try askin’ _without_ all the condescension there, yeah?!”

Ford reached out and put a calming hand on Stan’s shoulder. “Stan… _please_ don’t.”

“....Fine, fine,” Stan said, looking away and flexing then relaxing his shoulders, trying to let the tension out. Ford let out a soft, tired sigh, and looked over to his twin… and he wasn’t quite certain what the expression on his twin’s face meant, but he smoothed it over rather quickly into something far more neutral.

“I…” Ford began, uncertain as to what he should say in response to...

“How were you planning on going after the demon without me,” Ford’s twin said next -- _tersely_ this time -- his hands curled into loose fists at his sides.

...Dear Axolotl, they hadn’t even found Bill yet, and he was tired already.

“Ford, hate to say it, but…” was Stan’s own two cents, and Ford closed his eyes and shook his head.

And, somehow, it was easier to say it to Stan than to his own twin brother.

“I was going to call Star and ask for her help, if not her general assistance,” Ford told him -- really, them both. “She could potentially help in finding him,” assuming things had calmed down a bit on her end by now, “And pass along my request for Marco’s assistance on actually catching up to and ‘capturing’ Bill later. She would likely also be able to convince Eclipsa to come along and help talk Bill down, and back to coming back with the rest of us right then, post-haste, if that were needed,” Ford noted.

Stan stared at him for a moment, then got a sort of a quirky smile.

“Hell, I’m likin’ _this_ better than my plan already,” Stan said, starting forward again -- this time, back in the direction of the portal room from whence they’d came. “Let’s go back and--”

“_Stan_,” Ford told him with a sigh, shifting over a step to get in front of him. And, given that his brother had stopped in place so easily...

“Yeah, yeah,” Stan said. “Let’s call that a real solid ‘plan B’, then.”

“Star and _Eclipsa?_” Ford heard his twin say next and, blinking, Ford turned back towards him. “You know the _Butterfly_ family? --From _Mewni?_”

“Yes,” Ford said, adjusting his glasses, as Stan himself gave out a “Yeah,” and a, “Why?”

Ford’s twin looked between them. “I hate to be the one to inform you,” he said, “But the dimension of Mewni has gone _missing_, and the members of the ruling class were last seen in the Tavern at the End of the Multiverse shortly before disappearing from there. The scuttlebutt is that they likely _died_ when--”

“--Oh, no,” Ford cut in. “They’re fine. Not to worry! They’re perfectly safe in our dimension.” Then Ford realized what he’d just said at the confused shocked look that his twin gave him. “I mean, ah, Dimension 46’\\. Stan’s dimension. _Not_ Dimension 46 here, obviously. I, that is… I _meant_ to say...” Ford stopped as he realized he was just digging himself in deeper and deeper at this point, as both Stans looked on at him, and he tried to hold back a wince, as he passed a hand over his face.

“...I’m sorry,” Ford told his twin brother finally, dropping his hand. “I’m still getting used to this,” he added almost helplessly. Because the idea that he’d been in the wrong dimension and not realized it for nearly a _year_...

“_That demon_…” Ford’s twin muttered under his breath quite angrily, and Ford had to stifle another wince. Because to say that Bill had had nothing to do with what had happened there would not have been _quite_ accurate, given the nature of his relationship with Eclipsa and what his weirdness had likely had to do with how things had turned out in the final fallout of things, from the events as they had occurred, and yet...

“Look,” Stan said. “We’ll have more time to talk about all this junk later. Right now? You two should get all ‘geared up’ and whatnot,” he said, and Ford looked over at him blinking, as Stan tossed a thumb behind his back, back at… the locker room?

“...What?” Stan said to him next, at Ford’s confusion. “You said, the next time we needed to go anyplace out there from here, that you’d want to get all properly geared up and junk here first. So, y’know,” Stan repeated the thumb gesture. “Go do it?” He looked over at Ford’s twin. “Unless you’ve got some kinda problem with that now, that you didn’t have last time we were here and he said it,” he directed at his dimensional counterpart rather grumpily, with something of a thousand-yard glare.

“I have no problem with it,” Ford’s twin said neutrally, staring Stan down, and Ford tried not to groan as he walked by Stan into the locker room. Because yes, after several times of ending up in other dimensions since Bill had been back again, Ford had finally broken down and started carrying his basic kit on him at all times again, but… that didn’t mean that he felt completely outfitted for travel at large throughout the known multiverse.

But Ford slowed down and turned back (even as his twin moved past him with a ‘harrumph’) when he realized Stan wasn’t following him in. “Aren’t you coming?” Ford asked him.

“I’ve got all that I need on me,” Stan said neutrally, and Ford watched him for a long moment, before turning away and walking the rest of the way inside of the ‘armory’ that looked like, and also likely served at least partially as, a normal working locker room.

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: And just in case it wasn’t super-obvious? Dimension 46 here is the “A Better World” dimension. (...Have I broken your brains completely yet? *innocent look* *grins* ;)


End file.
